Trump, Congress set to clash over Hegseth, Iran war, Ukraine after election President Trump is headed for a showdown with Democrats and members of his party after Election Day over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s future leadership of the Pentagon, the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Democrats are stepping up their demands that Trump fire Hegseth after the midterm elections and warning they won’t support funding increases for the Defense Department while the military conflict with Iran is ongoing.

Republicans are warning that Trump will have to push back on Russian President Vladimir Putin and make a stronger commitment to Ukraine if he is to get the Defense funding increases the Pentagon needs after eight months of conflict with Iran.

This sets the stage for a political battle over the Department of Defense (DOD) after Election Day, and some Senate aides warn that if Trump doesn’t give significant ground after Democrats pick up seats in Congress, it could trigger another government shutdown.

“There’s no world in which Democrats are funding the Iran war,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide. “I think Republicans are going to have to do some version of reconciliation if they want to fund the DOD.”“I don’t know how it plays out if it’s not through reconciliation because I think you’d be hard-pressed to find many, if any, Democrats who are willing to fund it,” the aide added.

Democrats are ramping up pressure on Trump to fire Hegseth after the Nov. 3 election and threatening to impeach him in the next Congress if Trump doesn’t shake up the Pentagon’s leadership.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) is threatening that Democrats will push hard to oust Hegseth if they win control of the House in next week’s elections, as many political handicappers project. Jeffries is poised to become Speaker in a Democratic-controlled House.

“Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not,” Jeffries told MS NOW over the weekend, suggesting Hegseth could be impeached if he still has his job next year.

Senate Democrats, including members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have joined calls for Trump to fire Hegseth.

“I think Hegseth should have been fired multiple times,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a member of the Armed Services panel who cited Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution of Fort Hood mass-shooter Nidal Hasan as the latest reason for ending his tenure.

“The guy has no idea what he’s doing,” Kelly said, adding Hegseth stepping down “would be helpful” to getting the annual Defense authorization bill and the annual Defense appropriations bill on track.

In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Monday indicated in a post on the social platform X that he would reintroduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth when Congress reconvenes in Washington after the election.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Hegseth is focused on his mission of leading and equipping the nation's armed forces.

"At the War Department, we are solely focused on Peace Through Strength and ensuring our warfighters have everything they need to be successful. We are proud to serve our warriors," Parnell said, using the Trump administration's preferred name for the Defense Department. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson also defended Hegseth's record.

“Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War. Standards and merit are back, our arsenal is stronger than ever before, and morale and recruitment across every service are at all-time highs. Secretary Hegseth has slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters every step of the way," the spokesperson said.

Senate Democrats plan to take a hard line against Trump’s request for nearly $70 billion in emergency funding for the department and against the administration’s total request of $1.5 trillion in Defense funding for fiscal 2027.

But Democratic senators are divided over whether the House should impeach Hegseth if they win back control of the lower chamber in the midterm election.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a huge appetite or at least a successful enough vote share to impeach Hegseth in the Senate,” said the Senate Democratic aide, who noted it would require 67 votes in the upper chamber to remove Hegseth from office.

“You’re not f‑‑‑ing getting it, and I don’t think there will be a ton of energy outside of the bunch of folks who are running for president or who are thirsty for clicks to waste time on that,” the source added.

Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide, said Hegseth’s future leadership of the Pentagon will be at the center of an intense partisan fight over funding the department and the rest of government more broadly.

“I think you’ll see quite a bit of pushback” by Democrats against Hegseth and the Defense authorization and funding bills, he said. “That’s a proxy fight over the Iran war, pretty clearly.

“We’ll see Democrats push back pretty hard and they have an opportunity in the lame duck because the CR [continuing resolution] is going to come up and that will be an opportunity,” he added. “If Republicans don’t do well on Election Day, it’s going to empower Democrats to basically take the CR hostage and make demands." “And one of those demands will be related to the Iran war and Hegseth’s future,” he added.

Congress needs to pass a CR — a stopgap funding measure — to keep federal departments and agencies operating past Dec. 11.

The prospect of a stalemate over Pentagon funding, which could trigger a broader government shutdown before Christmas, has Senate Republicans discussing the need to push a third budget reconciliation package after Election Day to circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

Republicans used a reconciliation package in July of last year to circumvent Democratic opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and again this year to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol after Democrats objected.

But Republicans are divided over moving both a budget resolution and a follow-up reconciliation process — an arduous and time-consuming process on the Senate floor — given the limited number of legislative days in the lame-duck session.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, called on Trump in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal to work with Republicans and Democrats to pass Defense funding through the regular appropriations process.

But he warned that Trump would need to demonstrate a willingness to get tougher on Putin and make a stronger commitment to Ukraine to get a major funding bill through Congress before Democrats potentially take control of the House, and maybe the Senate, next year.

“Ending the obeisance to Mr. Putin may be table stakes for the end-of-year legislation. The president should plan accordingly,” McConnell wrote.

But Democrats are warning that the Defense spending bills will have a tough time passing after the election even if Trump pledges to take a tougher stance against Russia.

“I think McConnell is too rosy on the opportunity or ability to get funding for the Defense Department,” said the Democratic aide.